The importance of relative standards in ADHD diagnoses: evidence based on exact birth dates.

Journal of Health Economics
Todd E Elder

Abstract

This paper presents evidence that diagnoses of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are driven largely by subjective comparisons across children in the same grade in school. Roughly 8.4 percent of children born in the month prior to their state's cutoff date for kindergarten eligibility - who typically become the youngest and most developmentally immature children within a grade - are diagnosed with ADHD, compared to 5.1 percent of children born in the month immediately afterward. A child's birth date relative to the eligibility cutoff also strongly influences teachers' assessments of whether the child exhibits ADHD symptoms but is only weakly associated with similarly measured parental assessments, suggesting that many diagnoses may be driven by teachers' perceptions of poor behavior among the youngest children in a classroom. These perceptions have long-lasting consequences: the youngest children in fifth and eighth grades are nearly twice as likely as their older classmates to regularly use stimulants prescribed to treat ADHD.

References

Dec 20, 1976·JAMA : the Journal of the American Medical Association·J E BallardR L Sprague
Oct 20, 2001·Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal
Mar 13, 2002·Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics : JDBP·Eric MickStephen V Faraone
Aug 7, 2002·Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry·Marcia J SlatteryRachel G Klein
Oct 15, 2003·Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine·Andrés Martin, Douglas Leslie
Nov 25, 2003·Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry·Andrine R SwensenAmi Claxton
Mar 22, 2006·The New England Journal of Medicine·Steven E Nissen
May 26, 2006·The New England Journal of Medicine·Thomas Anders, Steven Sharfstein
May 30, 2006·Journal of Health Economics·Janet Currie, Mark Stabile
Jan 29, 2008·Journal of Health Economics·Jason Fletcher, Barbara Wolfe
Mar 27, 2010·Journal of Medical Ethics·Simon M Outram
Feb 18, 2014·Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy·Gretchen Lefever WatsonDavid Healy

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Citations

Jun 15, 2011·Journal of Medical Systems·Berdakh Abibullaev, Jinung An
Jul 16, 2013·Neuropsychopharmacology : Official Publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology·Kajo van der MarelLiesbeth Reneman
Mar 6, 2013·PloS One·Robert O DeanerStephen Cobley
Mar 7, 2012·CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association Journal = Journal De L'Association Medicale Canadienne·Richard L MorrowColin R Dormuth
Nov 21, 2012·Pediatrics·Helga ZoëgaSonia Hernández-Díaz
Jan 1, 2014·European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry·Søren DalsgaardMarianne Simonsen
Jan 30, 2016·Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety·Moshe B HoshenHelga Zoëga
Feb 27, 2014·Journal of AAPOS : the Official Publication of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus·Dawn K DeCarloCynthia Owsley
Mar 3, 2012·Annals of Epidemiology·Nathalie AugerJennifer O'Loughlin
Dec 14, 2011·Zeitschrift für Evidenz, Fortbildung und Qualität im Gesundheitswesen·Wilhelm Niebling
Mar 21, 2016·Neurología : publicación oficial de la Sociedad Española de Neurología·C Rivas-JuesasJ Colomer-Revuelta
Mar 29, 2014·Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines·Linda HalldnerPaul Lichtenstein
Mar 24, 2015·Brain and Behavior·Steven M SnyderMark A Stein
Mar 26, 2014·Acta Paediatrica·Laura BatstraMijna Hadders-Algra
Jan 17, 2016·Annual Review of Clinical Psychology·Jerome C Wakefield
Jul 6, 2014·Journal of Health Economics·Søren DalsgaardMarianne Simonsen
Aug 29, 2014·Zeitschrift für Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie und Psychotherapie·Kathrin RothmannDaniela Hosser
Jul 10, 2014·Zeitschrift für Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie und Psychotherapie·Christa StubenrauchKerstin Konrad
Feb 14, 2015·Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences·J C Wakefield
Apr 19, 2015·Current Opinion in Pediatrics·Bridget Kiely, Andrew Adesman
May 12, 2016·Computerized Medical Imaging and Graphics : the Official Journal of the Computerized Medical Imaging Society·Junqiang DuDaoqiang Zhang
May 10, 2017·Scandinavian Journal of Public Health·Øystein KarlstadInger Johanne Bakken
Jan 21, 2017·Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health·Eva Charlotte MertenSilvia Schneider
Dec 17, 2016·Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics : JDBP·Sebla GökçeGökçe Elif Saridoğan
May 26, 2012·Journal of Attention Disorders·Terra V KowalykJoseph Baker
Feb 10, 2018·Health Economics·Thomas S Dee, Hans Henrik Sievertsen
Aug 4, 2018·Health Economics·Grace Arnold, Briggs Depew
Oct 15, 2018·Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines·Martin WhitelyPatrick Landman
Feb 14, 2020·Health Economics·Simone BalestraHelge Liebert
May 15, 2013·Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics : JDBP·Allen Frances, Laura Batstra
Feb 6, 2017·The Medical Journal of Australia·Martin WhitelySuzanne Robinson
May 24, 2017·International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being·Sanne Te MeermanAllen Frances
May 3, 2019·Scandinavian Journal of Psychology·Özgür ÖnerŞirin Karadeniz
Jun 4, 2015·Paediatrics & Child Health·Polly Christine Ford-Jones

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Attention Disorders

Attention is involved in all cognitive activities, and attention disorders are reported in patients with various neurological diseases. Here are the latest discoveries pertaining to attention disorders.